Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Ripping Into GoldDerby.com -- Wrong On Julia Roberts, Wrong On "The Sopranos"

What's more fun than pointing out the faults of your fellow bloggers? Tom O'Neil of the LA Times awards site The Gold Derby offers up two whoppers. First, he says that Julia Roberts' decision to appear on Broadway is "the biggest gamble" of her career. Actually, it's not a gamble at all. As he says, Roberts made a good choice in the ensemble drama Three Days of Rain by Richard Greenberg. Also, the show's limited run is already sold out, so she's proven her starpower bonafides. And any critical praise she gets will just be icing on the cake. Roebrts gets to stretch herself, try something new in front of her adoring fans (who will invariably applaud her whatever the success of the show) and none of it will have the slightest effect on her movie career. O'Neil mentions other stars who crashed and burned on Broadway recently, such as Kelsey Grammer, Jessica Lange and Denzel Washington. Yeah, and so? Denzel just had the biggest opening weekend of his career with Inside Man. So how is this a gamble for Roberts? And referring to multiple Tony winner Cherry Jones as "obscure, but beloved" is just silly, especially when you're discussing who won the Tony. In the context of the Tonys, Jones is a bigger star right now and than all the other nominees she beat with Doubt.

Right below this piece is a look at Edie Falco on The Sopranos, where O'Neil makes the bizarre admission that he believed Carmela was somehow sucked into the Mob life. He was so desirious of thinking well of her that he tried to pretend Carmela had hooked up with Tony and that his involvement with the Mafia grew incrementally. Talk about denial. We've seen Carmela get bribed by Tony with lavish gifts again and again and again over the years. She knew EXACTLY what she was getting into and we've never had the slightest hint otherwise. That's exactly why she doesn't deserve her sympathy. Her hands are covered in blood just as much as his.